COGNITIVE-FUNCTIONING, WEIGHT CHANGE AND THERAPY IN ANOREXIA-NERVOSA

Anorexia nervosa is associated with impairments in cognitive function which have been hypothesized to be fundamentally attentional in nature . The current study investigated whether therapy and weight gain affec t these impairments. A group of anorexics (N = 12) completed a battery of cognitive performance tasks and self-report measures of psychopath ology on three occasions, over the course of 12 weeks of in-patient tr eatment. A non-clinical control population (N = 17) completed the same measures. The anorexics improved on all measures of psychopathology a nd affective state as a result of therapy. Anorexics displayed poorer recall, reaction times, and motor speed than the control subjects. Alt hough there was a gain in weight over the course of therapy, there was no corresponding improvement in cognitive performance. Impaired task performance in anorexics was not directly related to their psychopatho logy or affective state. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd.